No Sugar

“With them a reminder of the dangers they faced, in the shape of three lorries…carrying Aborigines”

Joe is reading from a Centenary edition of the Western Mail. Already, the Aborigines are being described as dangerous, despite the gentle opening scene in which this passage is being read.

“It is an offence to supply liquor to an Aboriginal native under the Aboriginal Act”

The sergeant accusing Frank of committing a crime. The double standard is apparent: alcohol, a mainstay of adult life, can only be consumed legally by the whites. The assumption is that they are civilized enough to control themselves while under the influence. Policy makers have apparently been so unnerved by the prospect of intoxicated Aborigines that they punish those who provide them with alcohol. 

“The ding always sells us little shriveled ones and them wetjala kids big fat ones”

Cissie complains that the native children get taken advantage of when they try to buy food. They receive the smallest and least desirable pies for the same amount of money as the larger pies that are given to the other children. The native children are not immune from racist practices. 

“You might think your doin’ ‘em a good turn, but you’re not. Take it from me, I been dealin’ with ‘em for years. I got nothin’ against ‘em, but I know exactly what they’re like”

Sergeant Carrol sets the tone of racism and profiling early in the play. He thinks he already knows enough about the Aboriginal people and nothing will change his mind. The fact that he is so obviously beyond persuasion shows the bitter the plight of the Aborigines: they are at the mercy of people who tell them what they are, and who insist that they can’t aspire to anything. 

“Claims he wouldn’t be able to go out and leave his wife alone at night”

Neville is speaking about a landlord named Mr. Smith, who does not want the Aborigines near his home. He fears them enough to think that his wife would be in danger in close proximity to them. The comment is not used for comic relief. Neville treats it seriously, as if the man’s fears are well-founded.

“Your trouble, Milly, is you got three healthy men bludging off you, too lazy to work”

When Milly complains to the sergeant about the cessation of soap rations, he changes the subject. Rather than addressing her claims, he tells her that her real problem is the men who should be providing for her loafing about. There is no work for the men, who are certainly not lazy. Her complaints do not even merit a proper response. It is obvious that the authority figures are beyond persuasion. 

“I’m afraid that soap is no longer included as a ration item”

The sergeant tells the family that they will no longer be issued soap. This is a dilemma for the Aborigines. They are seen as an unclean people, and yet soap, the most basic tool of cleanliness, is suddenly taken away from them. They are set up to fail at every turn. 

“Thirty returned to the settlement in pregnant condition”

Neville reads from a paper. Thirty young girls were taken from the settlement for domestic work. Thirty of them came back pregnant. The implication, particularly given Mary’s fears later, is that the girls were forced into sexual servitude by their new bosses. 

“I’m a great believer that if you provide the native the basic accoutrements of civilization you’re half way to civilizing him”

The Aborigines must abide by someone else’s definition of civilized. Because Neville is able to withhold aid from them based on his idea of what their standards should be, he is also capable of causing the erosion of their traditions if they get desperate enough to obey him. Referring to “the native” as if he were from another race is a clear indication that Neville—and by extension, civilized society—look down on the aborigines. 

“I don’t want any lip from you”

The Constable, before she has even responded, tells Gran that he doesn’t want her to talk back to him. This provides two signals. One, he expects her to talk back. And two, because the rest of the family follows Gran’s lead, it is clear that Davis means for the reader to see that the authorities consider the families to be a bunch of irascible troublemakers. 

“Sugar catches more flies than vinegar.”

Neville speaks these words to Jimmy Munday after denying him train fare after his release from jail. The irony is that Neville is telling a man whom he just imprisoned unjustly that if he treats Neville, his captor, more kindly, he may receive better treatment. Jimmy’s reasonable request is treated as “vinegar,” something unsavory. 

“Too late to adopt the Tasmanian solution”

The Tasmanian solution involved the poisoning of Aborigines by means of placing strychnine in their flour rations. The Sergeant and the Constable joke blithely about the practice and how it would save them from the inconvenience of the Aboriginal people and their demands. Because such horrific measures were taken in the past, the white authorities are capable of feeling generous. After all, they don’t resort to outright killing the natives. 

“And when she had that baby them trackers choked it dead and buried it in the pine plantation”

Mary tells Joe a story about a friend of hers. After being raped by the sons of a farmer, she becomes pregnant. When the baby is born, they kill it. This is the most heinous crime in the play, and yet, there was never any justice. When native babies can be killed with impunity, what use is there for hope or optimism? 

“They chuck ‘em on a big fire, chuck ‘em in river”

The white occupiers’ version of history differs greatly from that of the Aborigines. Billy tells a story about when his group was attacked by police. He talks about them slaughtering the natives and throwing them on the fire. It is clear that these were the white authority’s forces, which makes it all the more strange that Billy works for Mr. Neal. 

“I think she was scared of the living”

The Matron tells her husband that Mary’s reason for not wanting to work in the hospital is not that she is scared of the dead bodies she might encounter. Rather, she is scared of Mr. Neal, the living man who might harm her there. Rumors of ghosts and hauntings in No Sugar are never as dangerous as living racists. 

“Since all the natives have shifted out, Northam is no longer a ration depot”

Sergeant Carrol tells Joe that he cannot camp near Northam as there are no more rations. He speaks as if the natives just chose to left, knowing full well that he is talking to someone who was forced to leave. It is unclear whether he believes that or is just parroting the party line. Both are equally disturbing and insulting to Joe. 

“In that time some six thousand natives disappeared and only one was left alive”

Neville addresses the Royal Western Australia Historical Society. The six thousand natives who “disappeared” were poisoned, a fact that is not even worth mentioning in the official historical narrative as seen by white society. The disappearance is presented as a mystery, despite the fact that it was a mass murder.

“So he could have a nice, white little town”

Jimmy challenges Mr. Neal on Australia Day. He points out that all of the hardships they have endured during the play were predicated on a lie: the nonexistent scabies outbreak. The truth is that they have suffered so that Mr. Neal—and all that he represents—can have something as trivial as a white town. 

“We don’t hit people to make them do God’s will”

Sister Eileen lectures Billy, who has been hitting David to get him to go to Sunday school. She believes that even if humans can be instruments of God’s will, God would never use them to commit violence upon others. 

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”

Mr. Neal tells Sister Eileen that she is not to encourage the natives to read. Otherwise, they might acquire a dangerous amount of knowledge. This raises the question: dangerous to whom? Knowledge is empowering.  Mr. Neal and the white authorities are blatantly invested in keeping the Aborigines ignorant, and therefore, easier to control. 

“It doesn’t hurt to remind yourselves that you are preparing yourselves here to take your place in Australian society, to live as other Australians live, and to live alongside other Australians; to learn to enjoy the privileges and to shoulder the responsibilities of living like the white man”

Neville speaks to the Aborigines on Australia Day. It is ironic that he believes it is the Aborigines’ goal to live as the white man, which would include sharing in the responsibilities and privileges of oppressing other natives. 

“Well, here’s plenty of clean cotton wool and baby powder and Lysol soap”

After the baby is born, the Matron tells Gran how to clean and protect the baby. Gran replies that she doesn’t need the powder. She will use her own. There is no indication that her own methods are not as good as the Matron’s, and the Matron does not argue with her. There is a sense that she understands Gran’s expertise with the elements of the land, and respects her judgment.

“A classic case of emotion comes in through the door and reason goes out the window”

All strong emotion from the Aborigines is dismissed by Mr. Neal as illogical hysteria. He preaches an allegiance to reason, but when the Aborigines are angered because he denies them basic rights, he can’t see their points as valid.